The Wretched Little Steamer Could Not Carry All The Hands We Needed;
So, To Lighten Her, We Put Some Into The Boats And Towed Them Astern.
In The Dark, One Of The Boats Was Capsized; But All In It, Except One
Poor Fellow Who Could Not Swim, Were Picked Up.
His loss threw a
gloom over us all, and added to the chagrin we often felt at having
been so ill-served in our sorry craft.
Next day we arrived at the village of Mboma (16 degrees 56 minutes 30
seconds S.), where the people raised large quantities of rice, and
were eager traders; the rice was sold at wonderfully low rates, and
we could not purchase a tithe of the food brought for sale.
A native minstrel serenaded us in the evening, playing several quaint
tunes on a species of one stringed fiddle, accompanied by wild, but
not unmusical songs. He told the Makololo that he intended to play
all night to induce us to give him a present. The nights being cold,
the thermometer falling to 47 degrees, with occasional fogs, he was
asked if he was not afraid of perishing from cold; but, with the
genuine spirit of an Italian organ-grinder, he replied, "Oh, no; I
shall spend the night with my white comrades in the big canoe; I have
often heard of the white men, but have never seen them till now, and
I must sing and play well to them." A small piece of cloth, however,
bought him off, and he moved away in good humour. The water of the
river was 70 degrees at sunrise, which was 23 degrees warmer than the
air at the same time, and this caused fogs, which rose like steam off
the river. When this is the case cold bathing in the mornings at
this time of the year is improper, for, instead of a glow on coming
out, one is apt to get a chill; the air being so much colder than the
water.
A range of hills, commencing opposite Senna, comes to within two or
three miles of Mboma village, and then runs in a north-westerly
direction; the principal hill is named Malawe; a number of villages
stand on its tree-covered sides, and coal is found cropping out in
the rocks. The country improves as we ascend, the rich valley
becoming less swampy, and adorned with a number of trees.
Both banks are dotted with hippopotamus traps, over every track which
these animals have made in going up out of the water to graze. The
hippopotamus feeds on grass alone, and, where there is any danger,
only at night. Its enormous lips act like a mowing-machine, and form
a path of short-cropped grass as it feeds. We never saw it eat
aquatic plants or reeds. The tusks seem weapons of both offence and
defence. The hippopotamus trap consists of a beam five or six feet
long, armed with a spear-head or hard-wood spike, covered with
poison, and suspended to a forked pole by a cord, which, coming down
to the path, is held by a catch, to be set free when the beast treads
on it.
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